Artists' Bios

Richmond artist, Shirley Inouye, has been creating ceramic works for almost 30 years. She is a long-time member of the Richmond Potters Club and began taking private lessons as well as courses at Richmond Arts Centre. She received her formal training at Douglas and Kwantlen College and went on to teach classes at Richmond Arts Centre from 1982 to 1993. She has taken part in many group exhibitions as well as one person exhibitions since 1986.

Upon her retirement from her position as a Departmental Associate at Richmond Cultural Centre, Inouye took up her ceramic work full-time, celebrating her retirement with a solo exhibition at the Richmond Art Gallery title, “Changes/New Beginnings”, in 2003. The exhibition featured new work that was inspired by a visit to her parents’ birthplace, Mio Village, Wakayama Ken, Japan (sister city of Richmond) in 1996. She was influenced by the discovery of four wooden boxes containing paper lanterns that had once been used to light their way in the village. The lanterns shape and function became a constant reminder of that trip and of her family’s heritage and Inouye began to create her own lanterns out of ‘paper clay’. Their surfaces inspired by the sea and her family’s connection with fishing.